Ship of Dreams
by JaspreetPink
Summary: Written for Fem Gen Ficathon. After the death of her mother, Penny takes a fateful trip home on the SS Titanic.


Summary: Written for Jennyo's Female Gen Ficathon. The request was for a gen fic about Penny on the Titanic.

"Ship of Dreams"

_**George**: How'd you die?  
**Penny**: Boating accident.  
**George**: Sailing? Water-skiing? Fall out of a dingy?  
**Penny**: Bigger._

_--2:14 "Always"_

"Penny for your thoughts, darling?" the old woman asked from the bed, colorful quilts heaped on her. Penny smiled at her mother as she came into her bedroom. She put the old, varnished silver tea tray on the bedside table before sitting on the frayed wicker chair by the bed. Penny was middle-aged with blonde hair and a sardonic smile, and she had gone through this morning routine for nearly a year.

"I was thinking," she said, counting pills from a little bottle, "that it was time to take your medicine." She pressed the pills into her mother's dry, veiny hand and offered her a glass of water from the tray.

When it was done her mother closed her eyes as if the swallowing was too much for her. While Penny poured the tea, her mother regained her composure and looked up at her. "What do you dream of my Penny?" the old woman asked.

Stroking her mother's long, grey hair she answered, "I'd like to go home."

"Then that's what you should do."

The day after her mother died, Penny sold the contents of their little flat in Islington and purchased one steerage ticket from Southampton to New York on a new steamship—the _Titanic_.

Standing before the _Titanic_, Penny was shocked by how big it really was; larger than any ship she'd seen in the New York harbor as a child or the one that had taken them to England. Gazing in wonder, she was suddenly distracted by a bickering group of people standing nearby. There were about twenty or more of them, and Penny noticed that they were made up of both poor and rich passengers, as well as crew members. They all talked quickly and loudly, as an older man in a sailor's hat and cable-knit sweater, holding a leather-bound book walked among them, handing out small sheets of paper.

Penny didn't notice she was gawking until a woman with bright red hair and a grey wool dress walked over from the group and promptly informed Penny that her mouth was hanging open.

"What's your name, love?" she asked.

"Penny…what's going on over there," she pointed to the people, and the woman moved in front of her, as if to hide them behind her skirt.

"That's just a…a family reunion. We're a queer family. I'm Lis," she introduced herself, nodding.

"And you're all traveling on the same ship?"

"Well...we always wanted to see America!" Lis answered brightly.

"Uh huh."

Two young men, one swarthy and laughing, the other handsome and blond were running down the quay and bumped Penny's shoulder.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" Penny called to the empty air they left behind.

By coincidence, Lis was Penny's bunkmate in steerage.

"You can't buy that kind of twist of fate," Lis remarked, nervously laying her valise on her bed. Taking a deep breath, she half-added to herself, "Last sea voyage."

"Got something waiting for you in America?" Penny asked lightly, jumping on to her bunk.

"Just the usual work, I suppose. It's always work, isn't it?"

"I'm meeting up with an old beau," Penny confided as she unpinned her worn, mud-brown hat. "It's been four years since Mother and I left…so much lost time."

"And you don't suppose he's married by now, do you?"

"Not him," Penny said wistfully, "Or if he is…there's no way of knowing until we get there."

Lis seemed to want to say something but thought better of it. "Is your mother not coming back with you?" she said finally.

Her face darkened, and Penny replied that she wasn't.

"Hallo, ladies!" came a voice from the cabin door. A man about twenty with a wide grin and messy brown hair came into the room. "Seven minutes on the ship and I've already fallen in love!"

"And I bet she's a beautiful first class lady, and you'll be star-crossed lovers and die in tragedy," Lis teased.

"What? No, she's in the cabin next to yours, and her name is Hilde—prettiest green eyes this side of the Atlantic. Well, soon they'll be the prettiest green eyes on the other side of the Atlantic, eh Lis? And who's you're new friend perched so dainty on that bunk?"

"James Brian, meet Penny. She's seeking love across the sea as well," Lis announced, presenting each person with a wave of her arm.

"Ah, then I wish you luck in your endeavors, miss," James said with a short bow.

"The same to you, sir," Penny replied courteously.

"And now I'm off to find adventure! And wine! I think the three of us will have a grand old time on this dying ship, don't you think Lis?" James bent to kiss her on the cheek and gave a wink towards Penny before sweeping out the door.

"He's part of your family, huh?" Penny asked.

"Oh yes," she said, shaking her head knowingly.

James had predicted correctly, they had a whale of a time on the ship, and Penny was happier than she had been in years, no longer surrounded by death and deterioration. She spent her days on the Titanic talking with Lis and James about anything and everything and she spent her nights dancing wildly at steerage parties, her lips sweet with the wine James would press into her hand, telling her to drink up, that it would put color in her face. Laughter came easy on those days, and often she would find herself watching the stars at night from the deck, thinking about Aaron on a far shore and her mother in the cold ground, feeling a mixture of love and regret as potent as any spirits.

Then one Sunday morning, things got strange.

For once, Penny was left on her own to amuse herself, as all her friends were running around the ship, doing something or other. Penny knew that Lis, James and the others she'd seen on the dock weren't actually related, but she'd done her best to avoid thinking about it There was something mysterious about them, and Penny was going to find out what it was.

At dinner, she sat facing her two companions, pushing the roast beef and boiled potatoes around her plate with a fork. "So, what did you two do today?" Penny asked, stabbing a potato.

"Just a bit of exploring, meeting people," Lis replied.

"Well, you won't believe the shock I had this morning. Who should I find hidden in one of the lifeboats but my sweet Hilde, kissing another man! I've never felt so betrayed in my life, I could practically weep, if I weren't such a manly chap," James picked up his napkin and began dabbing his eyes.

"Liar," Lis said laughing, "It was _you_ found kissing Hilde in the lifeboat; I saw you go in!"

"Well I wasn't just going to _leave_ her alone with the other bloke, was I?" he countered, laughing as well.

Penny stared soberly at them. "I don't believe it. I've seen you two walking around, brushing up against people, looking at little slips of paper." She sighed with frustration. "What's going on?"

Lis and James stared at her with wide eyes, but didn't say a word. None of them spoke through the rest of dinner.

Penny would never forget the iceberg as the ship moved past it, looming white and forbidding, nor the sound of screeching it made against the metal hull of the ship. The rest of the night passed like a dream, blurry and rushed so that later she would only remember some moments clearly; the lines of people pushing against locked bars that kept them below decks, the old woman with eyes like her mother's who lay in her bunk, refusing to even try to save herself, and the last time she saw Lis.

"You're last on my list, love," Lis said, pulling Penny with her into an empty cabin. The floor was starting to ship water. "You won't understand yet, but I'm glad you're the one who replaces me. So smart, you almost figured us out." Lis cried as she hugged Penny close to her, and Penny gripped tightly to her friend, confused and hurting deep in the pit of her stomach.

"I love you, dear," Penny whispered, the water freezing around her knees. Lis's hand brushed firmly against her back.

"We've got our own little boat waiting for us. Can't appear too suspicious," Matthew explained to Penny, as they sat on the iceberg. Matthew was the leader of this band of grim reapers. He had explained briefly to her about how they took a person's soul before he died, and how she was now a grim reaper too. She listened silently, and then sat beside James, his arm hugging her close to him. They grieved on the frozen Atlantic until dawn broke.


End file.
